A synthesis of sociological and biological perspectives on sustainable land use in Namaqualand

A transdisciplinary synthesis, grouped into four main themes, of the key papers in this Special Issue on Namaqualand is provided. Perspectives on current environmental, economic and social issues in the region are interpreted in the context of the past and are used to inform future trajectories of change and development needs within the region. Firstly, in terms of the climatic and biophysical environment, Namaqualand's rich biodiversity is not uniformly distributed and is explained in terms of the spatially heterogeneous geological, pedological and topographical gradients that characterize the region. Spatial and temporal variation in rainfall over long time frames would also have promoted speciation within isolated, poorly-dispersed, leaf succulent populations. Future climate models propose a decrease in rainfall across the region with an associated reduction in livestock production. The second theme provides an historical perspective on changing land use practices in Namaqualand over the last 2000 years. It suggests that they have frequently been influenced by events originating far from the region such as colonial expansion, apartheid legislation and globalization. Local people, particularly marginalised communal farmers have had to adapt to these outside influences within an increasingly confined landscape that has progressively eroded their mobility and restricted their ability to utilise the spatial and temporal variability inherent in semi-arid environments. The third theme shows how livelihood diversification has been one of the key ways in which local people from communal areas have adapted to change. While farming makes up a relatively small part of the income of most households it enhances the resilience of livelihoods in the region. The fourth theme is concerned with land reform, conservation and restoration in Namaqualand. While a significant amount of land has been transferred to previously-marginalised groups, equitable access to these resources is lacking. An exclusively commercial orientation within the extension and development programmes of the Department of Agriculture further hampers the effectiveness of land reform as a tool for reducing levels of poverty in the majority of households in the region. Conservation initiatives could enhance livelihood options in Namaqualand but are viewed by some as being in competition with the state's land reform programme and are too recent to reflect significant regional benefits at this stage. While restoration is possible in severely degraded lands, the costs and operational difficulties in these event-driven, semi-arid systems are emphasised. Finally, this synthesis suggests that the important exogenous drivers of change in the 21st century are likely to be climate, biodiversity conservation initiatives, land redistribution and continued processes of de-agrarianisation as a result of macro-economic change. A focus on building institutions, encouraging livestock mobility within a significantly expanded commons and supporting livelihood diversification are some of the approaches necessary to address the development needs of Namaqualand.     

Restoring degraded landscapes in lowland Namaqualand: Lessons from the mining experience and from regional ecological dynamics

Three-quarters of a century ago diamond mining was added to livestock grazing and cereal cropping as a serious cause of landscape degradation in the north-western semi-arid region of South Africa, Namaqualand. Since that time the activities of diamond mine operators and prospectors have eclipsed all other land uses as a cause of degradation in this region. Discontinuous patches along virtually all of the 400 km of the Namaqualand coastline have been, or are currently, being mined or prospected. Prior to 1992 little was done to restore the landscapes and ecosystems to their pre-mining state, but since then legislation has placed a clear responsibility for restoration on mining operators. Implementation of ecological restoration was initially slow, but has recently gained momentum, in line with a growing awareness of environmental responsibilities amongst the global mining industry. In general, autogenic recovery of the perennial vegetation does not take place. The low annual rainfall and prevailing strong windy conditions present the greatest climatic challenges to the restoration of the flora. While the unique vegetation, and its features (e.g. poor representation of perennial species in the seedbank) present challenges to understanding the interventions that are critical in achieving ecological restoration. At the same time, climatic conditions such as the strong seasonality and low variability of rainfall, together with floristic features such as the high incidence of succulence, and the extraordinary drought tolerance of many seedlings, present opportunities for restoration. Perhaps the greatest challenges to restoration derive from the unsuitability of much of the mined overburden soils for plant growth. The nature and importance of climatic conditions, mined soils, topsoils, soil nutrients, landscaping, seedbanks, seeding, transplantation, and the interactions between these and other factors are evaluated in the context of this semi-arid environment and the prevailing mining practices.     

Patterns of Irrigated Agricultural Land Conversion in a Western U.S. Watershed: Implications for Landscape-Level Water Management and Land-Use Planning

In irrigated agricultural landscapes, land-use conversion may have landscape-level social, hydrological, and ecological effects. We used geographic information systems (GIS) and interviews to analyze development effects on irrigation in the Henry's Fork Watershed, Idaho. Farmers developed irrigation there in the 19th century, and incidental recharge from canal seepage and flood irrigation raised groundwater levels and expanded wetlands. Cohesive culture in agricultural communities sustained irrigation systems until amenity-driven demographic shifts beginning in the 1970s led to development approved by local governments with land-use planning but no water-management authority. Although only 5% of irrigated land has been converted, development has fragmented irrigated landscapes and made canal-system operation more difficult, potentially reducing groundwater levels, wetland extent, and return flows critical to downstream irrigators and fish and wildlife. We discuss future scenarios, highlighting the need for increased communication among local and state governments regarding land use and water management in irrigated landscapes across the West.     

Spatio-temporal pattern changes of land space in Hengduan Mountains during 1990–2015

Hengduan Mountains offer land space for a variety of ecological services. However, the sustainable development and management of land space has been challenged by increased human activities in recent years. This paper performs the spatial pattern analysis of the quantitative and structural changes of various landscapes at different altitudes, and uses the land use data in 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2015 to reveal how various land patterns have changed. The results show that, within the production-living-ecological space schema, the ecological space dominates Hengduan Mountains, while the production and living space was mainly distributed in south region. During 1990–2015, the production-living-ecological spatial changes had been gradually accelerated and the regional differences had become more prominent. The agricultural production space had continuously decreased by 1132.31 km², and the industrial and mining production space had rapidly increased by 281.4 km² during 1990–2015. The living space had steadily increased, and the ecological space had increased with fluctuations. The land space pattern in Hengduan Mountains was greatly restricted by the terrain, such as altitude and slope. The implementations of China Western Development Strategy and the Returning Farmland to Forest Program had favorably promoted the changes of land spatial pattern in Hengduan Mountains.     

Land reform and the new elite: Exclusion of the poor from communal land in Namaqualand, South Africa

The reserves and homelands across South Africa share a common history of policy interventions resulting in sedentarization, villagization and formalization of communal land use. In Namaqualand, such interventions culminated in the 1980s with attempts by the state and local vested interests to privatize the commons in the three largest Namaqualand reserves, including Leliefontein. This proposed privatization, although ostensibly aimed at averting land degradation and modernizing agricultural production, was as much about the apartheid state's broader strategy of co-option, and served to further long standing processes of class formation in the coloured communal areas of Namaqualand. In the post-apartheid period land reform has expanded the communal land-base in Namaqualand by over 25%. In spite of this, the management of the new commons in Leliefontein has many of the characteristics of land management policies imposed during apartheid. As a result, the new commons have effectively been arrogated by the same category of people who would have benefited under past privatization initiatives.This paper examines how the interests of a local elite have gained exclusive access to the new commonage farms. This has come about despite the government's commonage policy which privileges access by poorer, disadvantaged communal farmers. This case study uncovers the dynamic complexity of community driven land reform especially in relation to the roles of rural elites and their relationship to government institutions.     

Reconstructing pre-agricultural expansion vegetation cover of Ethiopia

Landscape reconstructions can be used to define a reference condition from which to assess the magnitude of land changes caused by human influence. Since the beginning of the last century, the population of Ethiopia has increased drastically with large effects on the natural vegetation and biodiversity. However, the original land cover patterns in Ethiopia have not been precisely mapped, which hinder the identification of the biophysical and socio-economic factors that contributed to the current landscape patterns. The objective of this study was to reconstruct the past century vegetation landscapes of Ethiopia (i.e. vegetation cover before agricultural expansion) and identify which ecosystems have been most affected by land changes. First, the net primary productivity (NPP) was modelled based on the climatic constraints of natural vegetation growth (water availability, solar radiation and minimum temperature) derived from remote sensing and climate data. This analysis showed that water availability is the most critical constraint for vegetation growth for all regions and land cover types in Ethiopia. Then, the past vegetation was mapped based on predicted NPP. Our results show that i) the extent of broadleaved evergreen or semi-deciduous forest, open broadleaved deciduous forest, closed to open shrubland, mosaic forest-shrubland/grassland, sparse vegetation and grassland was 18.8%, 12.4%, 20.6%, 31.5%, and 16.8%, respectively, and ii) current agricultural landscapes were previously covered mainly by broadleaved evergreen and deciduous forest, which encompassed 38.9%. The least affected by agricultural expansion were sparse vegetation and grassland. Our study provides novel insights on pre-agricultural expansion landscapes in Ethiopia with critical information for scientists and other stakeholders working on the restoration and rehabilitation of degraded areas.     

“Die man is die hoof en vat voor”: Women's attitudes to land and farming in the communal areas of Namaqualand

In the former coloured rural reserves of Namaqualand, land is held under an evolving form of communal tenure. This study, using in-depth interviews with both women farmers and non-farmers in Namaqualand, explores women's attitudes towards land and their experience of agriculture. It finds that women gain access to land for residential and production purposes mainly through dependent relationships with husbands, fathers and sons, and that unmarried women find it virtually impossible to obtain land rights in their own name. In the event of divorce or widowhood, women are vulnerable to loss of land rights and other resources. Women were found to engage in a range of agricultural activities, both on land allocated for their own use and on land controlled by male relatives, while a few better-off women engage in independent livestock farming. While the South African government's land reform programme has extended the area of communal land and attempted to secure the rights of existing land holders, this has largely benefited existing male farmers and appears to offer little to women farmers. Women's attitudes to the patriarchal system of land holding were found to be largely conservative. Few are willing to challenge the highly gendered nature of land rights within families, and women generally feel excluded from public processes around land. Nonetheless, women in the study expressed a demand for more secure access to land and an interest in agriculture as part of wider livelihood strategies.     

湿地景观格局变化研究进展

湿地是自然界最富生物多样性的生态景观,具有重要的生态功能。湿地景观格局是各种生态过程综合作用的结果,具有高度的景观异质性,对景观的功能和过程有着显著的影响。湿地生态系统是世界上受威胁最为严重的生态系统之一,在自然因素和人类活动的影响下发生了大面积的转化或丧失。本文从湿地景观格局研究方法、面积变化、景观类型转化、驱动力以及动态模型、湿地景观格局指数以及湿地景观格局与气候变化之间的关系等方面综述了湿地景观格局变化的研究进展,指出湿地景观格局变化及其生态效应和高原湿地景观格局变化与气候变化之间的关系是未来研究的重点领域。     

Land reform in Namaqualand, 1994–2005: A review

With the transition to democracy in 1994, South Africa was faced with an enormous challenge in redressing the highly unequal and racialized pattern of land rights inherited from the colonial and apartheid past. In Namaqualand, a history of land dispossession and racial segregation presented the new government with a complex set of problems, which led to a series of distinct policy responses within the context of the wider national land reform programme. Land reform in Namaqualand aims to impact positively on local people's access to land, improve livelihood opportunities and develop the local economy. Unique features of the land reform process in Namaqualand include the reform of tenure in the former Coloured Rural Areas, the prominent role played by local municipalities and the heavy reliance on municipal commonage as a form of landholding. This study provides and overview of the process of land reform in Namaqualand since 1994, considering the three elements of tenure reform, land redistribution and restitution of historical land rights. It concludes that, while considerable progress has been made in provision of additional land to historically disadvantaged communities, obstacles remain in the area of post-transfer support to new and emerging farmers.     

Human impacts on fluvial systems in the Mediterranean region

The long history of substantial human impacts on the landscape of the Mediterranean region, and their effects on fluvial systems, is documented. These effects have included impacts of deforestation and other land use changes, agricultural terracing on a wide scale, water transfers, and irrigation schemes. During the 20th century, major changes were made directly to channels through channelisation, construction of dams of various sizes, and extraction of gravel, and indirectly by reforestation. These changes have caused a major phase of incision on some rivers. Runoff and soil erosion have been affected by types of crops and agricultural practices as well as by the varying extent of cultivation and grazing. Some recent agricultural practices involve wholescale relandscaping of the topography and alteration of surface properties of material. The importance of analysing the connectivity within different land units and of the spatial position of human activity within a catchment is illustrated. The analysis of connectivity is the key to understanding the variability of impact and the extent of propagation of effects.     

Soils of Namaqualand: Compensations for aridity

The soil mantle in Namaqualand is immature in terms of weathering. Despite or even because of this, the diversity and spatial variability of soil physical and chemical properties is exceptionally high and could be fundamental in governing biodiversity and ecosystem function. In arid landscapes, the way the soil sheds, admits, stores, diverts and transmits water is crucially important. Namaqualand's soils possess special features, which modify water infiltration, hydraulic conductivity and subsurface storage and provision of water to plants. These include pedodermal crusts; a natural mulch of surface gravel or desert pavement; water-repellent soils with fingered infiltration of rain water; textural discontinuities at depth; subsurface horizons cemented with silica, calcite, fibrous clays or gypsum; soluble salts that affect plant water uptake osmotically; clay minerals having exceptional water-absorbing capacity and that are unique to arid environments; and a mechanism, in deeper sandy soils, for thermally induced upward transport of water vapour—a kind of nocturnal distillation—that seems to lessen the need for plants to root deeply.Superimposed on this already impressive pedodiversity are the almost ubiquitous heuweltjies—broad, low mounds which add further complexity to fluxes of water, salts, energy and nutrients in the landscape.     

Increasing China’s Agricultural Labor Productivity: Comparison and Policy Implications from Major Agrarian Countries

China’s low agricultural labor productivity has become the key weakness of its agricultural competitiveness and sustainable development, and strategies for improving China’s agricultural labor productivity lack clear and consistent theory and empirical support. To address this issue, the current study uses the methods of convergence index, correlation coefficient, and nonparametric test, to analyze the characteristics and influencing factors of agricultural labor productivity among 32 major agrarian countries during 1961-2013. This analysis shows that the development gap among countries has been narrowing. The USA takes the leading position among all the countries, while some countries with scarce land like Japan have succeeded in achieving transcendence, and other countries like India have experienced relatively slow speed. The agricultural labor productivity is significantly driven by agricultural labor surplus, agricultural product processing, and agricultural industrial structure. The effects of land resource endowment, agricultural mechanization, and biochemical inputs have been declining and in some cases are no longer even significant. It is therefore necessary to shift attention to marketization, diversification, and high quality, instead of the former focus on agricultural intensification, concentration and large-scale operations, and this shift is probably more closely aligned with current practices. There are more people and less land in China, and the agricultural labor force in China still accounts for nearly 30% of the total population. Considering these national conditions, it is very important to simultaneously improve the efficiency of agricultural production of small farmers and promote the successful urbanization of the agricultural labor force. In the medium and long term, it is imperative to improve the competitiveness of Chinese agriculture by adopting related policy arrangements such as induced agricultural technological innovation, production factor substitution, and multifunctional agriculture development.     

丘陵地区土地可持续利用的景观生态评价

景观生态学以人与景观的相互关系为着眼点，既注重景观系统的功能特征，又注重景观系统的稳定性和持续性，与土地可持续利用概念具有高度的一致性。以位于桂东南丘陵地区的广西横县为例，以土地可持续利用为目标，将土地利用持续性评价与景观生态学原理相结合，从景观生产力、景观受胁度与景观稳定性3方面构建土地利用可持续性的景观生态评价指标体系，包括水土流失面积比、地均工农业产值、景观破碎度和生产力多样性等14项指标，对丘陵地区土地持续利用的景观生态学评价方法和程序进行探讨和分析。     

Assessing linkages between ecosystem services,land-use and well-being in an agroforestry landscape using public participation GIS

While a number of studies have applied public participation GIS (PPGIS) approaches to the spatial assessment of ecosystem services, few have considered the associations between the spatial distribution of ecosystem services and the context-specific nature of self-reported well-being. In this study, we engage the general public to identify and map a range of ecosystem services that originate in place-based, local knowledge and explore the context-dependent nature of subjective well-being. We conducted a PPGIS survey with 219 local residents in a Spanish agroforestry (dehesa) landscapes and analysed the spatial patterns of mapped ecosystem services, their relation to land cover, protected area and common land patterns. In addition, we explored the landscape values contributing to people’s well-being; and the relationships between ecosystem services in different land covers, landscape values and socio-demographic characteristics. A mosaic of landscape types (i.e., the landscape) provided more ecosystem services (especially cultural and provisioning) to people compared with the individual land system of agroforestry. However, land tenure and public access significantly guided the spatial practices and values of the people beyond the preferred landscape types. The contribution of the landscape to well-being is largely related to values based on interactions among people and the landscape, as tranquillity/relaxation and people-people interactions such as being with family and friends. We discuss the specific contribution of agroforestry landscapes to the provision of ecosystem services and human well-being. We conclude that the integration of the applied methods of social-cultural assessment on the one hand links to ecosystem services frameworks but on the other hand represents a more holistic conceptualisation of people’s benefits from landscapes.     

Spatial-temporal change in urban agricultural land use efficiency from the perspective of agricultural multi-functionality: A case study of the Xi’an metropolitan zone

The excessive expansion of urbanized areas has resulted in haphazard land utilization, immoderate consumption of superior agricultural land and water resources, significant fragmentation of agricultural landscape, and gradual deterioration of the agro-ecological environment. Combined, these factors cause poor land use efficiency. Under these circumstances, comprehensively assessing land use efficiency for urban agriculture is a key issue in land use research. Currently, evaluation methods for agricultural land use efficiency narrowly concentrate on aspects of economic input and output. However, urban agro-ecosystems can provide diverse economic, social, and ecological services and functions. In particular, the social and ecological services and functions originating from agricultural land, which have a higher value than economic services, play a significant role in ensuring regional social, ecological, and environmental security. However, recent research has rarely taken these benefits into consideration. Therefore, land use value has been greatly underestimated, which has resulted in mishandled and poor land use policies. In this study, we apply Landsat imagery and social and economic statistical data for the Xi’an metropolitan zone (XMZ) to investigate agricultural multi-functionality. We develop an evaluation framework for urban agricultural land use efficiency and identify agro-ecosystem services and functions as important outputs from agricultural land. The land use efficiency of urban agriculture is then evaluated using ecosystem services models, providing a mechanism for assessing spatial-temporal changes in land use efficiency in the XMZ from 1999 to 2015. Four important conclusions are reached from this analysis. First, the rapid urbanization and agricultural transformation from traditional cereal cultivation to modern urban agriculture has resulted in steadily increasing costs, outputs, and land use efficiency of urban agriculture. The total output value increased 41% and land use efficiency per hectare increased by 33.13% on average. Second, the spatial patterns of comprehensive output and land use efficiency were dominated by economic outputs from agricultural land. Areas near cities, which are dominated by orchard and arable land, provide more economic functions. These areas support and regulate services due to the transformation from extensive cereal production to intensive modern urban agriculture; therefore, they have higher output value and land use efficiency. In contrast, areas distant from cities, towns, and high traffic roads, namely, remote rural areas, provide more support and regulating services, but have relatively lower economic function due to inaccessibility to urban markets and slow agricultural transformation. Therefore, these areas have lower output value and land use efficiency. The spatial change in agricultural output and land use efficiency in urban areas is strongly dependent on the degree of urbanization and agricultural transformation. Third, the total output value and land use efficiency of urban agriculture measured with our approach are much higher than evaluations using traditional methods. However, the spatial patterns measured using the two approaches are in agreement. The evaluation framework integrates ecological services and economic and social functions into a comprehensive output from agricultural land. This approach is more methodical and accurate for evaluating the comprehensive efficiency of land use based on quantities and spatial scale because they are at the pixel scale. Finally, the evaluation results have important implications for enhancing current agricultural subsidies and even implementing ecological payment policies in China. Most importantly, they can be directly applied to agricultural transformation regulations, decision- making, and guidance for rational land utilization.     

基于农业多功能视觉的都市农业用地效益时空变化研究——以西安都市圈为例（英文）

The excessive expansion of urbanized areas has resulted in haphazard land utilization, immoderate consumption of superior agricultural land and water resources, significant fragmentation of agricultural landscape, and gradual deterioration of the agro-ecological environment. Combined, these factors cause poor land use efficiency. Under these circumstances, comprehensively assessing land use efficiency for urban agriculture is a key issue in land use research. Currently, evaluation methods for agricultural land use efficiency narrowly concentrate on aspects of economic input and output. However, urban agro-ecosystems can provide diverse economic, social, and ecological services and functions. In particular, the social and ecological services and functions originating from agricultural land, which have a higher value than economic services, play a significant role in ensuring regional social, ecological, and environmental security. However, recent research has rarely taken these benefits into consideration. Therefore, land use value has been greatly underestimated, which has resulted in mishandled and poor land use policies. In this study, we apply Landsat imagery and social and economic statistical data for the Xi'an metropolitan zone(XMZ) to investigate agricultural multi-functionality. We develop an evaluation framework for urban agricultural land use efficiency and identify agro-ecosystem services and functions as important outputs from agricultural land. The land use efficiency of urban agriculture is then evaluated using ecosystem services models, providing a mechanism for assessing spatial-temporal changes in land use efficiency in the XMZ from 1999 to 2015. Four important conclusions are reached from this analysis. First, the rapid urbanization and agricultural transformation from traditional cereal cultivation to modern urban agriculture has resulted in steadily increasing costs, outputs, and land use efficiency of urban agriculture. The total output value increased 41% and land use efficiency per hectare increased by 33.13% on average. Second, the spatial patterns of comprehensive output and land use efficiency were dominated by economic outputs from agricultural land. Areas near cities, which are dominated by orchard and arable land, providemore economic functions. These areas support and regulate services due to the transformation from extensive cereal production to intensive modern urban agriculture; therefore, they have higher output value and land use efficiency. In contrast, areas distant from cities, towns, and high traffic roads, namely, remote rural areas, provide more support and regulating services, but have relatively lower economic function due to inaccessibility to urban markets and slow agricultural transformation. Therefore, these areas have lower output value and land use efficiency. The spatial change in agricultural output and land use efficiency in urban areas is strongly dependent on the degree of urbanization and agricultural transformation. Third, the total output value and land use efficiency of urban agriculture measured with our approach are much higher than evaluations using traditional methods. However, the spatial patterns measured using the two approaches are in agreement. The evaluation framework integrates ecological services and economic and social functions into a comprehensive output from agricultural land. This approach is more methodical and accurate for evaluating the comprehensive efficiency of land use based on quantities and spatial scale because they are at the pixel scale. Finally, the evaluation results have important implications for enhancing current agricultural subsidies and even implementing ecological payment policies in China. Most importantly, they can be directly applied to agricultural transformation regulations, decision-making, and guidance for rational land utilization.     

西双版纳山地不同森林景观鸟类多样性

研究了在不同形式人类经济活动下的森林景观变化与西双版纳地区鸟类多样性的关系．同时对发展生产时的用地布局和维护森林景观的动态发展与提高人们生活质量和持续发展的关系进行了讨论．     

Political Ecology and Cultural Change: Impacts on Swidden-fallow Agroforestry Practices among the Mopan Maya in Southern Belize

Little agroecological research examines indigenous agroforestry practices that appear to be unsustainable, and how such practices devolved from more environmentally sound land use strategies that have been documented by geographers and others. This paper discusses the political ecological factors that led the Mopan Maya to reject a diverse swidden-fallow management strategy for a system where an abandoned milpa provides few forest products. In doing so, this paper explains the process whereby cultural change, in this case rejection of certain agricultural traditions, leads to a less diverse agricultural landscape and ultimately a less diverse biological landscape.     

A Geosystem Perspective in Landscape Archaeology Studies: Ancestors' Occupations in Ilhéus,Brazil

Past occupations in the Brazilian geographic area showed experiences of particular relations with natural resources. In this sense, landscape archaeology attempts to have a better understanding of the lifestyle of ancestral populations by analyzing archaeological traces. The study approach that translates the natural systems and their relations with the anthropic systems is known as geosystem theory, which helps landscape archaeology in patterns of past occurrences resulting from environmental characteristics. The objective of this study was to show the geosystem landscapes of Ilhéus, in Bahia, Brazil, that defined land occupation since the precolonial period in Brazil. Four geosystems have been identified; they defined how precolonial groups lived in the area and favored colony growth starting in the nineteenth century with local sugarcane production in sugarcane mills. Key Words: geoarchaeology, GIS, natural systems, northeastern Brazil.     

Political Ecology and Cultural Change: Impacts on Swidden-fallow Agroforestry Practices among the Mopan Maya in Southern Belize

Little agroecological research examines indigenous agroforestry practices that appear to be unsustainable, and how such practices devolved from more environmentally sound land use strategies that have been documented by geographers and others. This paper discusses the political ecological factors that led the Mopan Maya to reject a diverse swidden-fallow management strategy for a system where an abandoned milpa provides few forest products. In doing so, this paper explains the process whereby cultural change, in this case rejection of certain agricultural traditions, leads to a less diverse agricultural landscape and ultimately a less diverse biological landscape.